August 22, 2022

Memory Lane - On Titmice and the Prudishness of Dics

Case in point: tit. Intro: sex and violence ─ don't you just love it? Well, when they're portrayed in movies, I mean. But how come there are parents aplenty who would rather have their kids watch someone getting shot or their heads blown off than to expose their innocent souls to the bare Hills of um... Beverly? 

Is it perhaps because we don't want to be reminded of our own needs, let alone admit in public what everyone else already knows ─ that there's a whole lot of uncontrolled heat awaiting Mr. Lucky underneath that thin layer of civilization? 

Speaking of thin layers, I don't know about you, but I'm always annoyed by having to look at male tits in movies while the gorgeous woman lying right next to mister-check-out-my-manly-nipples is conveniently hiding underneath a strategically placed sheet. There's a double standard at work here that annoys me more than anything else, and you know how much we hate double standards, don't we ladies? So I looked up the word tit in the Oxford Advanced American Dictionary, that all American wonder of all things wordy (http://oaadonline.oxfordlearnersdictionaries.com/dictionary/tit), wondering if perhaps it would be strategically hiding too. This is what I got, much to my surprise I might add:


Entry not found in this dictionary! See the Oxford Advanced Learner's Dictionary entry for blue tit.


Blue tit? I'm not interested in no blue tit. I see blue tits on a regular basis, and I don't mean the blue birds in your garden. And what do you mean, "Entry not found?" Are you telling me there's no such things as tits? Really, Oxford Advanced American Dictionary?


Undefeated, I looked up the word tit in dictionary.com.

This is what I got:

noun

1. a titmouse.

2. any of various other small birds.

3. Archaic. a girl or young woman; hussy.

4. Archaic. a small or poor horse; nag.


That's it? A titmouse... really? Thinking three times is a charm, I resorted to http://www.macmillandictionary.com/dictionary/british/tit

This is what I got:


1 IMPOLITE a woman's breast

2 a small bird that is common in Europe

3 BRITISH IMPOLITE a stupid person

4 INFORMAL a teat


Finally, a woman's breast. Impolite, but still a breast.

Linguistic desire quenched.

Blue tit signing off.

Prudishness is a sin, alright.

* * *


August 24, 2014


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